


They who govern Reason

by Philuffy Clement (TsundereLoli_Squid)



Category: Fantasy - Fandom, Octopath Traveler (Video Game), Shounen - Fandom
Genre: Fantasy, Shounen Fights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26772970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TsundereLoli_Squid/pseuds/Philuffy%20Clement
Summary: The party has just finished helping Tressa at Grandport. Tressa had just won the merchant’s fair and now the group is aiming for Duskbarrow to help Cyrus on his quest to find that missing tome. The group decided to stop at the tavern in S’warkii where they hear rumours of a mysterious cave………
Kudos: 3





	They who govern Reason

The party has just finished helping Tressa at Grandport. Tressa had just won the merchant’s fair and now the group is aiming for Duskbarrow to help Cyrus on his quest to find that missing tome. The group decided to stop at the tavern in S’warkii where they hear rumours of a mysterious cave………

“H-Hey, calm down Trevor, you need to calm it down on the ale.” One of the patrons was trying to calm down another patron who was causing a big scene.

“I’m telling you that I saw what I saw. It was a big cave and there was like this-this ominous feeling I be getting. I be feeling like someone was watching menacingly. It was filled with all sorts of creatures. Weird creatures on four legs that had, like, cracks running down their bodies.” He was scared. He was trembling as he kept talking and he was going pale as he kept going into detail on this “cave”. “Then I stumbled upon this large altar in the deep end of the cave and then there was, like, this loud voice and suddenly I felt a strong gust of wind that sent me flying out of the cave!”

At a table nearby, our party overheard this rumour and started discussing among themselves. 

“Is that what I think it is?” asked Ophilia with a puzzled look on her face. She was thinking hard, thinking of something but eventually coming to a blank. 

“My goodness, I believe that he has stumbled upon a shrine!” exclaimed Cyrus with a big grin on his face. “I wonder what this shrine could be?”

“But didn’t we, you know, visit all the shrines already?” asked Tressa. She had a look that was a mix of confusion and excitement on her face.

“Indeed, I believe that we’ve visited all eight shrines already,” remarked Olberic. He sat there with a calm look on his face. Multiple cups of ale littered the floor around him.

“I remember reading about this somewhere in a book in the archives of the royal palace. I believe I read something about there being four “forgotten gods” that we have forgotten about from the pantheon.” Cyrus stated. He brought out an old book. The Pantheon of Orsterra. It was an old book, many of its pages were falling out.

“Four…...forgotten gods….?” Ophilia was as confused as ever. “I think I remember his Excellency stating something about there being twelve gods in the pantheon.”

“Dohter, Aelfric, Sealticge, Draefendi, Bifelgan, Alephan, Aeber, and Brand.” Olberic slowly listed all the gods they have met when travelling to the shrines. The party has travelled all over and have already visited the gods of each shrine. Each shrine they went to bestowed upon them a class that they had the ability to transfer into.

“I think I know what we should do.” Cyrus looked up from his book in excitement and he walked over to the man named Trevor. “Hello, kind stranger. I’m just a wandering Scholar and your tale has piqued my interest! Would you mind telling me a bit more about this cave over a mug of ale?”

“Yeah, so you see…….” Trevor proceeded to tell Cyrus everything he knew about the cave (aka a shrine). He talked about the monsters he saw, the altar in the centre of the cave, and the mysterious voice he heard. He said that it was located just outside of Duskbarrow. 

Outside of the tavern, the party gathers to discuss their next course of action.

“According to him, it’s just outside of Duskbarrow. It seems that it’s just to the east. From the save point we have to just walk north and east and there should be some sort of path obscured by some sort of hill.” Cyrus was drawing on the map where the possible location could be. “It’s close to Duskbarrow so we could just take a quick detour to check. Everyone make sure to be prepared and be on the lookout for any sort of trails once we get to Duskbarrow.”

From there the party travelled northwards. They passed through North S’warkii trail then until they reached East Victor’s hollow trail. They continued onward and they accidentally walked into the stillsnow wilds.

“Ummm, C-Cy-rus, I-I th-think we we-wen-t the wr-wrong way.” It was so cold that Tressa barely managed to get any words out. 

“My goodness, I was so busy reading that I accidentally went east instead of north.” Cyrus was so engrossed in his book that they went the wrong way.

“Give me the map, I’ll lead us instead.” Ophilia grabbed the map and ended up leading the party back to the east victor’s hollow trail. Then they ran into hordes of giant boars. The party tried to run but failed to escape. They managed to take down the boars but took a bit of damage. Olberic saved them by taking the hits for them. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Ophilia was frantically healing Olberic.  
“I’m perfectly fine. I’m level 45 and I got high defence and health. I’m fine. We were just caught by surprise is all.” The party was luckily high levelled so they only suffered minor injuries. 

The party continued onwards. They frantically ran from the boars and did some level grinding until they eventually reached the east Duskbarrow trail. They walked around until they found the save point and decided to take a break and save.

All of a sudden Cyrus started walking east of the save point and the rest of the party rushed after him. They found him standing in front of some ancient, mouldering ruins.

“My, My, these are the mouldering ruins. I need to take a peek inside. I mean, just a quick peek couldn’t hurt.” Cyrus wanted to go into the ruins and take a look.

“No, we’re not taking any more detours, Cyrus.” Olberic grabbed Cyrus before he could take a step into the ruins. “The shrine is our first priority. Remember that we need to take down Lucia. Yvon had access to that creepy blood-gem. Who knows what Lucia has up her sleeve.”

“Olberic is right. Lucia is up to something and we should get all the help we need. If this shrine can give us some sort of power, we might be able to fight her head on without worries.”

“Okay, guys let’s keep going.” Ophilia was waiting for them at the save point. “From here, we should just retrace our steps and it should be some sort of path that’s obscured by a hill.”

The party retraced their steps and kept their eyes peeled for the path. They spent hours looking for it until Tressa spotted some sort of pathway and ran through it. The rest of the party followed and found Tressa waving for them at the entrance of some sort of cave.

“Hey, guys! I think it’s here!” Tressa ran into the cave. Two minutes later, Tressa bolted out of the cave screaming. “C-Ca-Cave…...m-m-monsters. Very…..scary.” Tressa was panting and she was as white as a sheet.

The party entered the cave huddled together. The party made sure to be careful of monsters. Suddenly they found themselves being chased by weird four-legged monsters. They were made of some sort of stone. They had weird glowing cracks that ran along their bodies.  
“Cyrus, what kind of monsters are these?” Tressa was getting her spear ready. Olberic had his sword drawn and was making sure no monsters got near. Ophilia cast some light and Cyrus frantically read through his monster book.

“These are a kind of monster called “Remnants”. These are “Remnants Mk 2” to be specific. There are three types: flame, ice, and thunder. They all seem to have the sword and spear weaknesses in common. Olberic, use your boosted level slash!”

“LEVEL SLASH!” Olberic used a fully boosted level slash and defeated all the remnants. The party continued onwards. They eventually found themselves in front at the bottom of the steps at the altar in the back of the cave. At the top of the stairs was an altar that had some sort of statue on it. The statue had a wizard hat on it. Slowly, the party climbed the stairs, each step putting them closer to the altar. They stood there and stared at the altar.

“Is everyone ready?” Ophilia looked at all of them and was stretching her hand out. “It’s the same thing as the other shrines. We just have to reach out to it.” Everyone nodded in agreement and Ophilia reached out to the altar. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew out of nowhere and they found themselves in an empty space. The only thing they see is the rock walls that enclosed the space.

“THOU WOULDST LEARN THE LOST SECRETS I HOLD….? THEN FIRST, THOU MUST PROVE THEY WORTH!” A loud booming voice echoed throughout. “LET THE TRIAL COMMENCE!”

All of a sudden there was a burst of light and HE stood before them. He was an old man and he had a golden mask that covered his eyes. He had long, gray hair that reached all the way to his feet. He wore a long white outer cassock that reached up to his feet and covering the cassock was a black vestment that had edges covered in a gold lining. He held a long, wooden staff in his left arm that reached past his head. He was sitting on a large, wooden throne. He was massive and he seemed to tower over the travellers, standing at just over 3.4 metres tall (around 11’2’’). His voice echoed and whenever he struck his staff to the ground, the entire ground shook.

“I AM DREISANG THE ARCHMAGUS. I AM THE ONE WHO GOVERNS ALL SORCERY. YOU MUST BEAT ME IF YOU WISH TO GLEAM THE KNOWLEDGE YOU SEEK!” Dreisang struck the ground with his staff. A shockwave struck the travellers and debuffed them.

“What’s happening?” Tressa was looking frantic. She took out her spear and was waiting for the leader’s commands.

“I just checked and it seems that we got debuffed. We got decreased physical and elemental attack for 4 turns. We also got status locked and can’t apply any buffs for 5 turns. Apparently, this is divine majesty” Ophilia brought up the status menu. She looked worried. “Cyrus, can you see what his weaknesses are?”

“I’m looking now. It seems as if one of his weaknesses is sword” Cyrus was carefully analyzing the enemy. “Olberic can you start striking him with your sword? He’s got four shields. It’s best if we go ahead and break him as quickly as possible. We need to check what his weaknesses are first. Everyone make sure to stay on guard and to stay healthy.”

Olberic struck Dreisang with his sword and broke one of his shields. Tressa proceeded to strike with her spear and managed to break another shield. Another weakness was discovered. Ophilia used “heal more” to bring their hp over the limit. Cyrus used a once boosted “analyze” to discover the lightning and axe weakness. On the next turn, Dreisang proceeded to use Lux Congerere which dealt light damage to the entire damage three times. The entire party took a massive hit and Tressa was close to fainting. Ophilia used a twice boosted heal more to heal the party back up and Olberic and Tressa struck Dreisang and broke his remaining shields. Cyrus fed an energizing pomegranate to Olberic. On the next turn, Olberic used Dohter’s charity on Tressa and Tressa used a medium pomegranate on the party. Ophilia used Aelfric auspices on Cyrus and Cyrus used lightning blast on Dreisang dealing some good damage. On the next turn, Dreisang recovered and stared at them imposingly and got two more shields and had his weaknesses change. He then used elemental break on Olberic which did a bit of damage and caused him to gain negative elemental defence.

Cyrus proceeded to use a fully boosted “analyze” to uncover all the weaknesses. Olberic and Tressa kept striking Dreisang with sword and wind attacks to break his shields. Divine Majesty was lifted and Ophilia cast “reflective veil” onto Olberic as an experiment. This continued. Tressa and Olberic would break Dreisang’s shields and Cyrus would be discovering the weaknesses or helping to break Dreisang. Ophilia would be casting “reflective veil” onto everyone. The party learned to deal with divine majesty. But then, Dreisang hit 50% health. “Extreme elemental augmentation”. It’s a skill that upgrades every spell to maximus versions that deal additional damage. It can be taken off through breaking but can be reapplied at any time throughout the battle. Dreisang had 10 shields and his weaknesses were bow, light, and dark. No one had any bp to boost. Everyone had low health as Ophilia wasn’t able to heal them the previous turn due to having to restock on sp after having her sp taken. Ventus Maximus. That spell caused the party to blackout and wake up at the save point in the east duskbarrow trail. 

“Okay. That didn’t go so well. We should take a moment to rest and gather our thoughts.” Ophilia led them to Duskbarrow where they decided to rest at the tavern.

“Okay so, here’s what we know so far…” Cyrus brought out his notebook and proceeded to write everything he remembered from the battle.

These were the notes. Dreisang starts with 2 shields and every time he recovers from a break, he gains 2 more shields for a maximum of 10. He had 4 sets of weaknesses that changed every time he recovered from a break. The four sets were: sword, spear, axe, lightning, light at the start. Then it changed to Sword, lightning, wind. Then it changed to bow, light, dark. Finally ending with knife, fire, ice then looping back. He mainly uses elemental spells that hit three times having a spell for each element. Once he reaches 50% health, he’ll start boosting these spells and they will do more damage. Other skills he has elemental break which deals some physical damage and lowers elemental defence. Element steal which steals sp from the entire party and finally divine majesty which status locks everyone for 5 turns and reduces elemental and physical attack for 4 turns.

“If he mainly uses elemental attacks then I believe that if I can cast “reflective veil” on everyone, it could negate his attacks!” Ophilia beamed brightly. 

“True. If we just wait out divine majesty for 5 turns and routinely apply reflective veil then it could work.” Olberic was thinking hard. He seemed happy with himself for coming up with an interesting idea.

“I think I know what we can do.” Cyrus had them all huddle together and he proceeded to tell everyone his plan.

Four hours later, the party stood there again. They all had their hands reached out and were prepared to take on the trial. This time they were prepared.

Dreisang opened up with divine majesty. Ophilia went ahead and overhealed with a boosted “heal more”. Olberic and Tressa rushed the boss with spear stabs and sword swings. Cyrus called upon bolts of lightning and flung them at Dreisang. Dreisang’s shields were broken. They continued to rush him. A sword swing, a lunge with the spear and lightning and light cascaded down from the sky. Dreisang fired three waves of fire at them. Olberic stood in front of the group and took the hits for them. His armour was barely damaged. They continued to rush him. 

Divine majesty has worn off. Cyrus proceeded to cast the ultimate dancer spell.  
“SEALTICGE’S SEDUCTION, DANCE OF THE DIVINE LADY” Cyrus channelled the power of Sealticge, the divine dancer, and performed the divine lady’s dance. His dance inspired Ophilia.

“REFLECTIVE VEIL!” Ophilia struck the ground with her staff and her allies were covered in a golden aura. Olberic and Tressa proceeded to individually buff themselves and debuff Dreisang. Dreisang fired back with waves of spells but it was all shot back at him. Wave after wave of spells were sent back to Dreisang.

“You mortals………” Dreisang was growing agitated and he was furious that he wasn’t able to do anything to the travellers. Not even divine majesty could do anything. “EXTREME ELEMENTAL AUGMENTATION!” 

Dreisang began to glow. He has reached his maximus phase. From the sky, giant bolts of thunder rained onto the travellers and shattered their reflective veils. The bolts of lightning were fired back at Dreisang but the travellers took a major hit. The battle was tense. The party seemed to be having an easy time and were able to counter all of Dreisang’s skills. 

Dreisang had his shields broken. Tressa cast “armour corrosive” on Dreisang and his defence fell greatly. Olberic buffed his physical strength and Ophilia cast “Aelfric Auspices, blessing of the divine flame” onto Cyrus. With that, all of them proceeded to strike Dreisang.

“LIGHTNING BLAST!”

“HOLY LIGHT” Light and Lightning came raining down from the sky.

“It’s time. Tressa, Olberic, now!” Cyrus and Ophilia had done their part.

“King of all who calls themselves warriors, give me your strength. I summon thee. BRAND’S THUNDER, SWORD OF THE WARRIOR KING!”

“Prince of thieves, I call for your help. I summon thee. AEBER’S RECKONING, THE PRINCE’S TRICKERY!” 

At the same time Tressa and Olberic, now using the power of the gods Brand and Aeber, they struck Dreisang. Tressa’s knife and Olberic’s sword. Dreisang tried to block them but his defences were shattered and Dreisang disappeared. 

“You all have proved thy worth. I impart unto thee the lost secrets of the heavens. I bestow upon you the class of Sorcerer.” Dreisang had bestowed upon the travellers his blessing and the travellers found themselves at the cave entrance.

“We did it!” Tressa was jumping up and down in joy.

“Indeed, this calls for a celebration!” Olberic was laughing. He was amazed that they managed to take down one of the gods.

They journeyed to Duskbarrow and held a small celebration at the tavern. Primrose, H’annit, Therion, and Alfyn were there waiting for them.

“Hey, guys what took ya so long?” Alfyn was smiling holding multiple mugs of beers

“Well, it’s a long story but….” They all gathered around as Cyrus told them the story of how they beat Dreisang.

“My, you managed to beat a god.” Primrose was impressed.

“So what kind of treasure did you get?” Therion was sitting in the corner analyzing some treasure he got from his last quest. It was festive and all of them had a grand old time.

“Okay so, what’s next on the agenda?” Ophilia was wondering what to do next. “We’ve beaten Dreisang and I take it you guys have finished your mission, so what should we do next?”

“I have to take down Lucia. Some of you still have your own things to do. I’m going to remain here in Duskbarrow and track Lucia down.” Cyrus was lost in thought. He needed to take Lucia down. 

At the end of it, all of them decided to split up into two groups. Primrose, Tressa, Alfyn, and H’annit left for Everhold to take down Simeon. Cyrus, Ophilia, Olberic, and Therion stayed in Duskbarrow to track down Lucia.

“Okay, let’s get to the bottom of this mystery, shall we?” With that, Cyrus, Ophilia, Olberic, and Therion started their mission to take down Lucia.


End file.
